The Wifi Game

well i managed to get the hard part done. the driver is installed and working. i can get on my wireless network and use the internet. or so i though. i then powered down the system and moved it to my room, i had it at a station that had LAN access so i could get everything set up.


when i rebooted it in my room it was a no go. this issue seems to be a conflict with network manager. for some reason opensuse does not like to use this at all. i enabled it in the network section of YAST and it worked the first time. then i rebooted and it fails to work. so i tried to repeat the steps and it still fails. what could be wrong here? yes i had the LAN unplugged when it was working. nothing has changed.

problem is there seem to be 50 different ways of doing this and none of the very clear. i have not touched linux for 5 years and i am starting to see why.

what steps are needed to make sure the knetworkmanager and network manager run every time at boot? if these programs are broken then what programs can replace them?

failing that how else do i connect to a wireless network? i keep seeing everyone talk about fixed network settings yet the provide no info as to how. my network is fixed, same SSID, WPA key and channel.

so how do i setup linux to connect to my network on boot. sop far i can't find any clear guides for my problem. i already got the driver installed.

well... i got so more info on the problem.

seems that unless i do this as root
modprobe ndiswrapper

it all goes to h***, i do that and everything works. people say to add ndiswrapper in the "hardware" however i can't. it isn't a selection and if a type it in it doesn't save it. so failing that where and what config file do i have to open and edit to bypass this. i would rather not have to go through this method each time i reboot the system.

i did everything in the BCM43xx quidehttp://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Broadcom_(BCM4306)_WLAN_Installation_under_SUS E

except the last step
Also edit /etc/sysconfig/hardware/(your nic card) to change the module. Change 'bcm43xx' to 'ndiswrapper'

su -c 'kwrite /etc/sysconfig/hardware/hwcfg-bus-pci-xxx

2. Now follow the instructions in the "ndiswrapper procedure" above to setup your wireless card using ndiswrapper.

i don't understand what this means. what do i put in the xxx or (your nic card)? nor does it give any idea as to how to get said info.

so i poked around in those areas. here is what i got
linux-vl3f:/etc/sysconfig/hardware # ls
hwcfg2rules hwcfg-static-printer
hwcfg-bus-pci-208 README.hwcfg_and_device_initialisation
linux-vl3f:/etc/sysconfig/hardware #
the hwcfg-bus-pci-208 was a file i made. i see no config files in here.

I am also having problems with my WiFi connection. I am actually worse off than you are, I think. I can see all sorts of wireless networks. I can configure mine with WPA, SSID, channel, etc. It just won't connect. This seems to be a common thing for I can't connect with 2 different laptops (Dell Latitude 830 the other a Compaq). I have even gone so far as to open up my WAP to totally open and no WEP or WPA. It still won't actually connect.

I am COMPLETELY ignorant of Linux troubleshooting. I love it if it installs and works. If it doesn't seem to work on install, I grab a different distro. I have grown to like Suse on my desktop and want to actually get it working properly on my laptops, so I don't know if my problem will help you figure yours out or if they are completely different issues. At any rate, they seemed relatively related and thought one answer/fix might handle both....

If need be I will start my own thread to eventually get ignored..... :blink:

Thanks.....